More Letters to the Editor

Published 10:00 pm, Thursday, August 30, 2007

The disculpatory words of Ted Miller as cited in a recent letter from Taylor Bowie overlook one serious factor in the dog-fighting sickness: these dogs are not "trained" to attack; they were bred to attack.

Centuries-old selective breeding of the pit bull have served to make of it a useful tool for violence-prone but cowardly spectators. As the name indicates, the breed was genetically doctored to behave in the pit as sad projections of ill-natured humans beings.

That's nothing new: The Nazis performed the same "operation" on the Rottweiler, whose genes, luckily, were redeemed after 1945.

Robert EllrichSeattle

THE BLAME GAME

I wonder how many times Jane Hague's, Bobbe Bridge's and Larry Craig's dogs ate their homework. As Charley Brown has been heard to lament, "Why is everybody always pickin' on me?."

President Bush's recent visit to Seattle highlights what a bizarre political system we have established in this country. The president came here on what was solely a political junket. There was not even a pretense of his visit being related to his job as president. Yet the taxpayers picked the tab for the significant transportation and security costs.

To put it plainly, as a taxpayer I was forced to pay to bring the president here so he could raise money to help re-elect a congressman whom I oppose. What a great Rovian "in your face" maneuver!

Dick SchwartzBellevue

MAIN STREET/WALL STREET

Main Street investors nationwide beware. In a recent move, President Bush has made it very clear that he values the likes of Enron's crooked CEOs over Main Street investors.

This fall. the U.S. Supreme Court will consider Stoneridge Investment v. Scientific-Atlanta. The case, which will determine whether investors can recover investment losses when fraudulent corporate collusion is proven, like the fraud committed in the Enron and Worldcom scandals. In an effort to protect the corrupt executives, President Bush ignored the Securities and Exchange Commission's recommendation to file a brief on behalf of investors -- falsely citing the myth of "America's decreasing competitiveness" as his reason.

Perhaps he underestimates America's resiliency. After all, the same U.S. markets he is disparaging in his decision remain the strongest in the world, despite his administration's dismal performance. For example:

* Fourteen percent of all IPOs conducted in 2005 were conducted in the U.S. - more than any other country.

* In 2005, the U.S. topped the list of countries for percentage of total IPO proceeds with 20 percent. Those proceeds were valued at $33.086 billion.

* U.S. IPO volume increased by 22 percent from 2005 to 2006.

* During the last quarter of 2006, there were 94 registered IPOs on the American exchanges-- the highest quarterly level since 2000.

Our markets remain strong and using "American competitiveness" as an excuse to weaken investor protections is nothing more than a sham. This case pits Main Street against Wall Street, and Bush has made his loyalties abundantly clear.

The Seattle P-I should be applauded for calling on the University of Washington to meet the highest standards in animal research protocol ("Animal Research: Make the grade," Saturday). But as a neurologist, I know that even the best improvements won't change the fundamental ethical and scientific problems with animal experiments.

In a study in the Journal of the American Medical Association, physicians cast doubts on the usefulness of animal research and cautioned against extrapolating research results from animals to humans. Even the secretary of the U.S. Health and Human Services announced that nine out of 10 experimental drugs fail in clinical trials because we cannot make predictions based on animal studies. Basic research on animals is problematic because each species and each strain within a species is unique in regards to metabolism, biochemistry, genetic makeup and expression, and physiology.

The ethical concerns cannot be ignored. Experiments can cause extreme pain and stress, and numerous published studies reveal that even routine procedures in the laboratory cause profound stress in animals. Instead of trying to improve a failed system, research institutions like the University of Washington should forge the way to an innovative, non-animal research paradigm.

Kudos to the P-I for not cooperating with the FBI's gross overreaction and scare-mongering to a couple of guys on the ferry asking questions. As a regular ferry rider I have been alarmed by the new "security" measures that include running speedboats with machine guns mounted on their bows alongside the boats. This makes me feel safe like the Blue Angels make me feel calm. If the FBI is going to scramble every time a tourist with a mustache asks a question or two about the amazing, beautiful and impressive system of water transportation we have in this region we may as well recognize we are living in times little better than the McCarthy era.

Sean CarlsonSeattle

I-5 SHUTDOWN

What if they gave a freeway shutdown and nobody came? That's the real story coming out of the I-5 lane closures for engineering repairs. The media, as usual, hyped up the "inconvenience", the "clogged artery", the "traffic jam" that they drumbeat every night in order to play up the sensation.

But they were looking in the wrong place. The sensation is that in one day, 50 percent of the usual automobile traffic disappeared off the concrete of I-5.

The other arteries like highway 99 and Airport Way were not unusually clogged, either. People still got to work. The city did not shut down.

The dirty habit of burning up fossil fuels to drive hunks of metal bearing only one passenger was shucked overnight. The carbon footprint of Seattle and King County was dramatically reduced without any new roads, new taxes, or new construction. How did that happen?

The biggest reason is that local government offices warned us and prepared us. Simple education and communication went a very long way. They also prepared for it by timing lights, getting more busses in service, streamlining corridors, increasing capacity on the Sounder train, and putting an extra passenger boat from West Seattle out on Elliott Bay.

People were forced to make another transportation choice and they did it. Mass transit in the Seattle/King County area actually does work!

People will not change their lazy, carbon-consuming habits just because they are offered a carrot. Link light rail is a nice carrot. More passenger ferries on Elliott Bay (and even Kirkland to Seattle!) is a nice carrot.

More Metro busses more frequently is a nice carrot. These are all valid options. But people will not easily try them until they are given a stick as well. Higher gas prices alone will not do it as we have seen in the past two years. Actual shutting down of road surfaces will do it. We just saw it happen.

So when City Council and County Council members consider what to do about the Alaskan Way Viaduct, let's hope they think about what just happened in August 2007.

Road surfaces decreased and people still got where they wanted to go. It underlies the basic truth that the objective of a good transportation strategy is not to move vehicles -- it is to move people and cargo. If that can be accomplished without paving over the rest of King County, what a success we will make for our businesses, our people, our environment, and our future.

Janice Van Cleve43rd District Coordinator Areas 21 & 22Seattle

EMERGENCY CONTRACEPTION

The issue of "emergency contraception" reminded me of an experience at a military hospital in Japan during the Korean War. The hospital had one obstetrician for the large civilian population as well as for the women in the Air Force. His religious beliefs included a prohibition of any birth control (at that time, primarily the use of diaphragms). Accordingly, the women were sent to a distant base for this simple procedure. Finally, the hospital commander, over the strong objections of the obstetrician, appointed a general physician to handle this task.

The obstetrician also believed that God ordained that women should bear children in pain, thus refusing the use of pain-relievers during labor.

A follow-up note. Ultimately a second obstetrician of minority background was assigned to the hospital. At that time, the base had many Southerners in the mostly white Air Force. The second doctor, from New England, well-trained, and empathic, was welcomed with open arms and was soon thought to be the most popular man on base.

The imposition of one man's religious orientation on a captive group had resulted in great anger, bitterness, shattered morale, and even hatred.